In memory of our brother and son, Robert Bagnell,
who died moments after being tasered by police in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 23, 2004. Bob was the 7th Canadian to die and the 110th in North America.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

A UC San Francisco study cautioning about the dangers of police use of Tasers has been coolly received by Contra Costa law enforcement authorities who say the device has bolstered the safety of both officers and suspects in violent situations.

The Taser has been proffered as a nonlethal alternative to firearms. But the statistical study found that the devices did not significantly increase officer safety or decrease officer-involved shooting deaths in the first year of use.

The UCSF research team conceded important limitations of the study, particularly the size of the data pool. Fifty of 126 California law enforcement agencies sent complete data to researchers, and the country's 10 largest cities were contacted but did not respond. Researchers, who estimate that Tasers are used by 12,000 law enforcement, military and correctional agencies worldwide, declined to comment specifically on which agencies responded.

The other key limitation of the study is that in the case of non-firearm in-custody deaths, it is not clear how many involved the use of a Taser. At best, the figures can be associated only with the availability of Tasers to officers.

"Since this is an observational study, it's hard to make definitive conclusions. But it definitely raises questions about its safety," said Byron Lee, author of the study and an assistant clinical professor in cardiology.

Except for the Sheriff's Office, law enforcement officers on patrol in Contra Costa County use a model of the Taser, the most popular brand of electric stun gun that shoots probes with electric current to briefly incapacitate a person. The Sheriff's Office only uses Tasers in county jails.

Local law enforcement agencies agreed that Taser use carries risks, but no more than any other means of force. But they said the study seemed to downplay the safety benefits Tasers provide for officers and suspects.

"Prior to it coming along, there was ... a big gap between intermediate force options like batons and pepper spray, and lethal force," said Concord police Sgt. Dave Hughes, who oversees his department's Taser training.

Three of the police agencies interviewed by the Times — Antioch, Concord and the Sheriff's Office — have not had Tasers in wide circulation long enough for the study. Brentwood police Lt. Tom Hansen said his department has had Tasers in place for about five years, but said he wasn't aware of his department being contacted by researchers.

The study, posted online in late January and set for publication in the American Journal of Cardiology, compared non-firearm suspect deaths, firearm deaths, and officer injuries in the five years before Taser deployment and five years after. Cardiologists led the study in part because Tasers have been demonstrated to cause rapid irregular heartbeat, and adrenaline from a struggle and multiple shocks near the heart can make a person more susceptible to death or injury.

In the first of year of Taser use, study data showed a sixfold increase in non-firearm, in-custody deaths of police suspects, from 0.93 per 100,000 arrests to 5.96. In the same period, the study found the frequency of suspect deaths involving the use of a firearm more than doubled from 6.66 per 100,000 arrests to 15.1. Researchers did not get comparable data to track officer injuries in the same period, but observed no significant change linked to Taser use.

But after the first year — which varies, though police departments started adopting Tasers in the late 1990s — the study suggested that police adjusted their use and deaths and injuries returned to levels before Taser implementation.

Hughes offered statistics from his own department refuting the study's observations. In Concord, figures from 2006 — the first full year Tasers were used — show a 21 percent decrease from 2005 in "use of force" events, which include police dogs, physical restraint, batons and pepper spray. Those figures include one on-duty firearm discharge in 2005 and none the following year.

Officer injuries in 2006 decreased 35 percent from 2005, from 26 to 17. Hughes said that can be largely attributed to an increase in Taser uses, with 47 recorded discharges in 2006, up from 17 in 2005, when officers also used other forms of stun guns.

There have been no recorded in-custody deaths in Contra Costa County directly linked to Taser use. In one instance, however, a Taser was one of several measures used on Uriah Dach, a 26-year-old mentally ill man who died after a violent struggle with police April 22 at a Richmond boardinghouse. Dach had ripped out the Taser prods police used on him during the fracas.

The training covers areas such as the optimal spots on the body to aim Taser shots that incapacitate without causing injury. That includes larger muscles, such as the back and legs. Officers also learn to stand far enough from the target — between 10 feet and 15 feet — to ensure the Taser probes create a circuit large enough to stop someone.

When used properly, Hughes said, suspects who are Tasered avoid serious injury.

Researcher Lee stressed that the study does not advocate for the abandonment of Tasers. Its larger purpose is to show that Tasers may not be completely safe and need more third-party study.

"It's definitely better than shooting somebody," he said, but "there may be some inherent dangers and more research needs to be done to find out how safe or unsafe the device is."

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taser-Related Deaths = 997+ in North America

See "A LIST OF THE DEAD"According to Taser International, the taser had nothing to do with any of these deaths. According to Amnesty International, the taser has been identified as either a cause or contributing factor in at least 60 of them. That number would be higher; however medical examiners and coroners are often not impartial but are instead biased in favour of the Crown or, as has been shown, they are under tremendous pressure from - among others - Taser International, to make a particular finding.See Judge rules for Taser in cause-of-death decisions

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Taser International finally admits risk that their weapons may affect the human heart

RCMP - TASERS POTENTIALLY LETHAL

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My Brother - Robert Bagnell June 27, 1959 - June 23, 2004

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2) Until such time as independent and unbiased study into the "real world" safety implications of Tasers has been properly completed, a moratorium must be imposed upon these weapons.

3) If, after independent and unbiased study has been completed, the Taser is going to remain in the police arsenal, it must be placed at a level equal to lethal force on the continuum of force and used only as a second-to-last resort.

4) Safety standards must be developed for Tasers. There are currently no Canadian safety standards in place for this weapon.

5) Police must not be allowed to investigate themselves but must be subject to independent and unbiased civilian oversight.

6) Families of people who die in police custody in Canada must be provided with funding so that they may be properly represented by legal counsel.

07. Robert Bagnell, 44 – Vancouver, BC - June 23, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Consistent with restraint-associated cardiac arrest due to acute cocaine intoxication and psychosis. Bob's autopsy report showed marks on his body consistent to multiple taser shots, which incidently could not be affirmed by the pathologist because she could not explain those marks.

09. Samuel Truscott, 43 – Kingston, ON - August 8, 2004 - X26 - "Official" cause of death: Heart attack cause by drug overdose and "I can state categorically that the Taser did not play any role whatsoever in his death" said Chief Coroner for Ontario, Jim Cairns

24. Michael Langan, 17, Winnipeg, MB - July 22, 2008 - tasered 1 time - the autopsy report says Langan's death was caused by a heart arrhythmia brought on by the Taser shocks

25. Sean Reilly, 42 - Brampton, ON - September 17, 2008 - Peel Regional Police - X26 - tasered 2 times - the inquest jury will determine the official cause of death, however, “the forensic evidence indicated that the force used by the officers, including the Taser discharge, did not contribute to his death"

27. Trevor Grimolfson, 38 - Edmonton, AB - October 29, 2008, X26 - According to sources, after he was pepper sprayed, Trevor was tasered directly on the chest 5 times and tasered on the back of the neck 2 more times - Edmonton police said he was only tasered 2 times but testing on the tasers proves otherwise - "Official" cause of death: excited delirium brought on by drugs

29. Grant William Prentice, 40 - Brooks, AB - May 6, 2009 - RCMP - tasered 2 times - "Official" cause of death: acute cocaine toxicity and "the medical examiner also concluded the taser did not play a role in the death"

Ain't it the truth!

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80% percent of the population could be moved in either direction

Human rights activist Susan Sontag, when asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.

THE Successes AREN'T the Problem

"The issue is not whether or not the taser can be used in a high percentage of cases to reduce death and/or physical trauma to officers and civilians alike. The issue is whether or not it's OK to kill the rest through ignorance and rationalization just because it's a small percentage ... The successes aren't the problem - the failures are. They're being told that tasers are nonlethal, so they blast away until people can't move. They're killing people by accident." Dave Siegler, father of Raymond Siegler, who died on February 12, 2004

The artistic side of Robert Bagnell

WE KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE

ROBERT ANGLEN

Robert Anglen, a reporter with The Arizona Republic, documented the first 167 Taser-related deaths. Mr. Anglen launched a journalistic investigation of Taser International, linking the Taser to multiple deaths, among other eye-openers.

At the 2005 Arizona Press Club Awards, Mr. Anglen won first place in the Investigative reporting category. He was the recipient of the Don Bolles Award for his report entitled "Taser tied to 'independent' study that backs stun gun'. “As part of an extraordinarily thorough investigation of Taser International, Anglen uncovered ‘smoking gun’ documents that showed the manufacturer was heavily involved in the key study that purported the devices are safe. Anglen also uncovered conflicts of interest and documented wide-spread problems with Taser safety — a matter of national and international public interest.”

In 2006, Mr. Anglen was a runner up for the Arizona Press Club's Virg Hill Journalist of the Year award. Peter Bhatia of The Oregonian wrote “Robert Anglen is an investigative reporter, pure and simple. Clearly, he is a reporter who, once he sinks his teeth into something, stays with it until the story is done. His ongoing work around the company that makes Tasers speaks to that."